Aftermath of Reach
by Disciple of Shai-Hulud
Summary: Of the hundred fifty or so ships that survived the Battle Of Reach, only a dozen or so were left to limp back to Earth. Of those few, only a handful made it.


*OK, I'll be honest. This story is a Halo fanfic; just my personal take on the aftermath of the Battle of Reach. Took me quite a while to make sure I don't stray on any areas that might make for continuity errors.

As usual, DISCLAIMER: Bungie and Microsoft own Halo. All names, terms, and likenesses do not belong to me.

Comments welcome:

The UNSC Frigate Ruthless Redemption reappeared in normal space, amidst a burst of light. Having made its transition from the never-never space the humans called Slipstream Space, the frigate activated its onboard sensors to survey their surroundings. Operations ran sluggishly, patrol parties having difficulty exiting the ship's damaged single ship bay. The frigate took a heavy beating during the Battle of Reach. It was a miracle the ship even managed a transition to Slipspace at all; they were still being chased by plasma torpedoes when they made the jump.

"Minerva, give me a run-through on the status of our ship," the ship's commander, Roland Johnson, said. "Yes, Commander." The A.I.'s avatar flickered on the holo pedestal in front of the command chair. Her chosen avatar was odd when compared to those chosen by other such A.I.'s: a mischievous teenage girl, wearing a disarmingly short skirt and an equally short top that didn't reach her midriff. She wore mid-length hair with a ribbon on the top. Data and equations ran along her clothes as she made calculations.

"Good news and bad news, sir. Weapon status read green: 15 archer missile pods remain and our MAC gun is fully operational. We have one remaining Shiva nuclear warhead onboard."

That's the good news. The bad news is that we have only 60% operational power on our engines, though we are still capable of making a jump to slipspace. Hull integrity is severely compromised. We have breaches on all lower decks and on several of our upper decks. Our communication dishes are destroyed, so we can't make a call for help even if we wanted to."

"Very well, Minerva. Is there a nearby system where we can make repairs? If so we…"

"Sir, Slipspace ruptures, 500 km off our starboard!" A trickle of sweat slid down the commander's neck. _How did the bastards follow them from Reach?_

"Minerva, full power to port. Ready our MAC gun and initiate the Cole Protocol. I want all nav databases purged by the time we engage them." Minerva's apparition turned to face him. "Sir, engage them? They outnumber us five to one." "We don't have the power to outrun them, Minerva. And anyway, if they chased us from Reach, they can sure follow our course, wherever we may go. We'll probably go down, but I want to take as many of those bastards to hell with me."

A pause. "Done, sir," Minerva announced as the Covenant party appeared on their periphery. Johnson made a few calculations and turned to his navigation officer. "Lieutenant, I want full power to this position." He sent the data to the officer's station. "Yessir."

"Minerva, drop our nuke here," he highlighted a point on the holo-chart "as we pass that point."

"Yes commander. I assume you have a plan."

"Yes. I'm taking that destroyer and that carrier out."

As the frigate moved to its new heading, the two, lead ships from the Covenant party, a Carrier and a Destroyer, pulled ahead to engage the Redemption.

"Tell all crew members to secure all decks. Minerva, bring us about." The ship banked to port until it faced the oncoming Covenant ships. "Arm all of our remaining archer missile pods. Get me a firing solution for 5 of our missile pods to impact with the carrier right after the MAC round impacts. Aim the rest of the pods at the destroyer. And get ready to send the detonation signal to that nuke as the ships pass their point."

"Yes, sir."

The covenant ships turned to starboard as they presented their plasma cannons. Red bulbs of energy glowed along their lateral lines. Slowly, they moved towards the Redemption, unknowingly closing distances with the Shiva nuclear warhead.

"MAC capacitors are hot, sir. Ready when you are." The Covenant ships crossed the nuke. A great ball of fire engulfed both Covenant warships, temporarily concealing them from view. The ships continued forward, however, their shields flickering and dying. "Firing archer missile pods." The bridge crew watched as the missiles streaked toward their targets. The MAC round was soon to follow. The carrier bow crumpled under its impact then shuddered as explosions blossomed along its hull. The missiles sailed over to finish off the carrier.

The destroyer veered as it tried to avoid the incoming archer missiles, but was unable to evade most of them. Though a couple of missiles were unable to reach their target, the barrage was enough to destroy the enemy ship and eliminate it from the melee.

The bridge crew cheered as they watched the destruction of the lead Covenant ships. Their euphoria was short-lived however, as they saw the remaining ships move to outflank them.

"Lieutenant Dumas, bring us about to course two-four-zero. Lieutenant Dumrique, give me 80% output from our engines. Spare as much power as you can to recharge our MAC without compromising the engines."

"Sir! Yes, sir," his junior officers responded.

The commander didn't have any missiles left to fight the Covenant; all that remained was his MAC gun. His defense turrets still remained, but they were next to useless when engaging the enemy's battleships.

As their ships maneuvered to their new heading, the ships that had been approaching their starboard moved to intercept them on their course. _Those Covenant bastards. They're trying to make sure we don't even have enough room to attempt another Slipspace jump. Fine. If they're so intent on killing us all, I should at least return the favor_.

"Sir, engines are approaching failure point. Primary coolant breakdown imminent." "Vent primary coolant and use secondary. We won't be running for long."

One Covenant frigate had finally intercepted their course. It moved slowly to present its starboard side to them. Plasma glowed along its lateral line.

"Lieutenant Dumas, patch through to my station the controls for the emergency thrusters." The 2nd Lieutenant at first looked confused at this command, then hurried to obey.

"Sir, the enemy has fired a plasma torpedo. Collision in twenty-four seconds."

At three seconds to impact, Commander Johnson engaged the emergency thrusters, and dodged the plasma torpedo. "Lieutenant Munroe," he directed to his weapons officer, "fire the MAC round." "Firing, sir."

A single streak of light sailed over to the frigate and struck its starboard rear. Though the shields took the brunt of the impact, some of the momentum made it through, and struck the ship's engines. Explosions rippled across the battleship's hull as chain reactions ripped it apart.

The plasma torpedo, however, having followed the human frigate's course after it missed, struck the ships along its rear, gutting their engines, leaving them dead in space.

Johnson groggily pulled himself up as he assessed the damage. "Minerva, report!"

"Sir, control to our engines has been gutted. We have limited energy devoted to the rest of the ship's functions and we're currently losing oxygen."

Suddenly, the frigate jerked as it took a hit. "Sir," the ops officer shouted over the alarms, "enemy boarding craft just destroyed one of our lifeboats and docked in its place."

_Christ, they must be after Minerva_. "All right, people," Johnson said, as he addressed his junior officers, "we've put up a helluva fight, during the Battle of Reach and here. I'm proud to say we gave those bastards hell." He surveyed all their faces; not one of them betrayed any fear. "It has been an honor serving with you all." He saluted. In unison, the bridge crew stood up and returned his salute.

"Minerva, initiate Cole Protocol Article 1 Section 5. Override your safeties and activate your failsafes. One final mission."

"Sir, yes sir…"

"And Minerva…"

"Yes, sir?" her avatar looked up from her pedestal.

"It's been an honor serving with you, too." His thumb hovered over the self-destruct button as her hologram disappeared.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Sangheili Ranger Puta Monamee bowed before the platform of the carrier's shipmaster. "Excellency, we have searched the remains of the human vessel. Their shipmaster did not survive and their ship's construct has been destroyed. There was no retrievable data to be found," he reported.

Shipmaster Thosa Ronomee merely nodded his head at the information. He had expected as much; the humans were always quick to destroy their nav databases whenever they were in risk of capture. "You may go, Ranger. Report back to your own commander for debriefing." "Thank you, Excellency." The Ranger bowed once more before retreating from the command center.

_It hardly matters_, Ronomee thought to himself_, the humans will burn, whether they cooperate or not_.

I will see to it…


End file.
